Choose Wisely
I don’t know about you, but when I look at the world today, peace is not the word that comes to mind. Chaos, confusion, division, anger, hatred, suffering…these words come to mind, but not peace. The word “peace” appears 420 times in the King James Bible. This tells me that peace is significant and is something worth paying attention to. So how do we have peace while living in a world full of pain, suffering, and division?
The answer is simple really. Jesus. I know that sounds like the Sunday school answer, but it’s the truth. Jesus is where we find peace in the chaos of life. Only Jesus can provide the peace we need to get through our days here on earth.
Paul starts out chapter 4 of Philippians by urging two people in the church to agree and not fight with one another. He wants them to have peace with one another. How does he suggest that they agree? In the Lord. This points back to chapter 1. In verse 27, Paul says to live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ and reminds us to stand firm in one spirit, contending together for the faith of the gospel. We are to have peace with one another by remembering that we are all ambassadors of Christ. A five minute scroll through social media shows just how easy it is to forget this. Jesus is the thing that binds us together with others in peace. We would all do well to make our decisions about how we will respond to people, what we will say to people, and how we will treat people by filtering it through the lens of living our lives worthy of the gospel. If our actions, words, and deeds are an accurate reflection of Jesus, we will most certainly experience peace with others.
Paul also urges us to rejoice and not worry about the things of this world. Scripture tells us over and over again that we will have troubles. That is a given. Jesus had troubles, so why in the world would we think that we would be exempt from them? The trouble or suffering is not the important thing. How we respond to suffering is what is important. We are told to rejoice in our suffering. James tells us this in his book, Paul tells us this in Romans, Colossians, and Philippians, John tells us this in his gospel as well as in Revelation, Peter tells us this in his first letter to the persecuted Christians in Asia…you get the point.
Suffering is anything that causes us stress, from a minor irritation, to a major event. Why in the world would we rejoice in that? As believers, we know that suffering has a purpose. It is not just meaningless, and it does not necessarily mean that we are out of the will of God. Suffering is used to bring good. It produces perseverance, or the ability to handle pressure, in us. It produces character in us. It was through suffering that Jesus was proven to be reliable. Perhaps most importantly, it produces hope within us. Suffering comes our way not to destroy our hope but to intensify it.
This process only works if we are willing to cooperate with God. When we respond to suffering with rebellion, indifference, complaining, self-pity, fear, or worry, we will always be defeated by it. When we respond to suffering with the understanding that it is not strange (1 Peter 4:12-13), it is completely normal and has a purpose, we stand a much better chance at not only defeating it, but coming out with a stronger faith on the other side.
God calls us to lay our suffering at His feet. He wants us to bring our fears and our desires before Him. Take a look at Philippians 4:4-7. Notice that these verses do not say that God will grant all of your requests. These verses remind us that He wants us to bring them all to Him. God does not want us walking around weighed down by worry. He wants us to be filled with His peace. It is not about us getting what we want; it is about us handing off the thing we don’t need (worry) and receiving the peace that we need to navigate through our suffering. Getting what we want is not what brings us peace. Living in the truth of the Gospel and knowing that the battle has already been won brings us peace.
We have peace with God through our salvation. I was listening to a sermon this weekend, and the pastor laid out four ways to know that you have peace with God. The first was that you are no longer afraid of God. John 15:13 is a great reminder of how much God loves us. If God loved us before we were part of His kingdom, even when we rejected Him, how much more must He love us now that we are part of His kingdom? Accepting this truth brings us a peace that surpasses all understanding.
The second was that you no longer have a fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15 reminds us that the work of Jesus on the cross defeated death once and for all, so we no longer have to fear death. The enemy has been defeated and is still defeated today. We can have peace with God knowing that the enemy no longer has a hold over us, and we will be with Him for eternity.
The third was that we don’t panic when the devil whispers doubts in our ear. Ephesians 6:11-16 spells out for us how we can protect ourselves from the lies of the evil one. Philippians 4:8 reminds us to stay focused on the things of God, things that are honorable, just, true, noble, pure, lovely, and commendable. Tempting and discouraging thoughts will come unexpectedly, but we can train ourselves to contemplate good things. Using our intentional time to read and memorize scripture will help combat those thoughts when they come. Being covered in the armor of God’s word allows us to have peace with God when doubts begin to creep in.
Lastly, we know we have peace with God when we have confidence before God even though we are imperfect. Romans 8:1 tells us that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Hebrews 4:16 tells us to come boldly before the throne of God. Why? So that we may receive mercy and help in our time of need. We not only have permission to approach God with confidence, but we are commanded to. Knowing that we can come boldly before His throne brings an incomprehensible peace…a peace that is not of this world.
The bottom line is this: peace is attainable…even in this crazy chaotic world that we live in. Peace can be an enigma, but it doesn’t have to be. Peace is available to us through Christ. Through Him, we can have peace with other people. Through Him, we can have peace in our suffering. Best of all, through Him, we can have peace with God. It takes a little work on our part, but what good thing doesn’t take a little work? We may have to give up some things that we have fashioned into a blanket of comfort in our lives, like complaining, social media, television time, drama, apathy, self-pity, arguing, having to be right all the time, the need for our opinions to be heard by everyone, or fear. In the end, you get to decide what is most important to you. How bad do you want peace in your life? Is it worth it to you to move out of your comfort zone? Is it worth it to you to rearrange your priorities? The choice is yours my friend. Choose wisely.